Once upon a time: enhancing project knowledge sharing through a storytelling workshop

Performance reporting is very effective to measure project metrics and control, without ambiguity, the progress of the project. However, beyond reporting milestones, metric records and deliverables leave behind tacit knowledge that has the potential to increase project effectiveness. Indeed, in addition to tangible project results there is also knowledge that exists only in the minds of individual project partners. The objective of the storytelling workshop was precisely to improve the skills of the project partners to tap the unseen and better document the project.

The evaluation of the project during the initial phases revealed that storytelling was a challenge for the consortium partners. The narrative perspective was far from the technical background of most of the partners. Therefore, there was a general sense of lack of knowledge on how to tell a success story. To fill this gap, a storytelling workshop was included in the agenda of the face-to-face consortium meeting held by one of the project partners, Pheno Horizon, in Lodz, Poland. The fact that Pheno Horizon was the leader of the work package in charge of the dissemination, exploitation, transferability and communication of project results made this consortium meeting the ideal setting to reflect on the knowledge sharing of the project. Furthermore, Pheno Horizon is specialized in stakeholders’ integration and had previous experience in the workshop methodology.

The workshop took place on October 23-24, 2023, under the title: “How to tell a good story in HEI? Storytelling workshop to build cooperation with Ecosystem Integration Labs” and was given by Maciej Kowalczyk, managing director of Pheno Horizon. It was attended by 23 participants from eight consortium partners.

The setting of the workshop was the Stare Kino Cinema Residence, located on the site of the first permanent cinema in Poland, and second in the world, opened in 1899 under the name “Cabinet of illusion”. It is an example of the power of good storytelling and fits perfectly with the importance of creation and reinvention in the context of the project.

The workshop was divided into two stages:

Day 1 (October 23, 2023). Presentation by Maciej Kowalczyk in which relevant topics on storytelling were discussed, such as the rules of storytelling and the importance of focusing on the topic. The presentation was illustrated with inspirational examples. Those examples revolved around one of the most iconic marketing campaigns of all time: P&G’s “Thank You Mum”. The campaign recognizes what mothers do for their children, their effort and their achievements. That campaign was originally the result of a sponsorship deal with the United States Olympic Committee for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In the context of the workshop, it has two key take aways:

• Any message can be transformed into a powerful story, indeed there are few things as prosaic as selling detergents. The campaign shows the relevance of transforming something cold into a moving message.
• A good resource for storytelling is big ideas in the form of universal human values, authenticity and emotion.

Day 2 (October 24, 2023). Tell us success story of your EIL. Talent Labs presentations. Participants were invited to create a communication action to engage students, academic and non-academic staff, HEIs management team members and companies in their Talent Labs. The key elements of the implementation of the activity were:

• Participants were divided into teams. To encourage networking among project partners and to break the ice, participants were asked to choose a candy of different flavors, those who chose the same candy had to team up.
• Each team had to use storytelling to “sell” a different Talent Lab. Participants had to create their story based on three elements: purpose of the story, proposed framework and final scene.
• Participants were free to choose the most appropriate visual or non-visual elements to create their story.
• The activity ended with the presentation and feedback of each team’s story.

The stories revealed aspects of great importance for the project. For example, the role of the Talent Labs in generating ideas for the reconstruction of Ukraine after war or the relevance of these learning spaces for the meeting of different generations, thus taking advantage of the multiplier effect of experience and youth for problem solving.

The workshop succeeded in empowering participants in storytelling. In addition, the development of stories around the project results was very useful to better visualize them and share knowledge inside the consortium in a much richer way. The enhancement of the internal benefits of the consortium clearly favors external dissemination of the project.